Lent - A Time For Penance and Reflection

Lent and The Sign of Jonah

Luke 11:29 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

The Sign of Jonah

²⁹ As the crowds were increasing, He (Yeshua Jesus) began to say, “This generation is a wicked generation; it seeks for a ^[a]sign, and yet no ^[b]sign will be given to it but the ^[c]sign of Jonah.

The original Greek word translated "generation" is genea {ghen-eh-ah'}. This Greek word can be translated to age so we could read it this way, "This age is a wicked age........"

Also, the Greek word translated "sign" also means a supernatural miracle, a token, or a wonder {a feeling of surprise mingled with admiration}.

In our Old Testament story of Jonah, God sent Jonah to the wicked city of Nineveh and when he got there, the Lord would give him the words to say to the Ninevites. Most of us know the story about Jonah and the whale but I want to concentrate on what happened when Jonah finally obeyed and got to Nineveh. 

Jonah 3:1-4 Common English Bible (CEB)

Nineveh hears God’s word

3 The Lord’s word came to Jonah a second time: ² “Get up and go to Nineveh, that great city, and declare against it the proclamation that I am commanding you.” ³ And Jonah got up and went to Nineveh, according to the Lord’s word. (Now Nineveh was indeed an enormous city, a three days’ walk across.)

⁴ Jonah started into the city, walking one day, and he cried out, “Just forty days more and Nineveh will be overthrown!”

Is this the Lord Jesus' message to all of us today? The Hebrew word translated here as "overthrown" is haphak {haw-fak'}. This word has multiple meanings but basically it means to turn about or over, implying to change, be converted, to return. 

Lent is a sacred Christian period of penance and reflection. It is a yearly event and lasts for 40 days.

Back to the story in the book of Jonah.

Jonah 3:5-10 Common English Bible (CEB)

⁵ And the people of Nineveh believed God. They proclaimed a fast and put on mourning clothes, from the greatest of them to the least significant.
⁶ When word of it reached the king of Nineveh, he got up from his throne, stripped himself of his robe, covered himself with mourning clothes, and sat in ashes. ⁷ Then he announced, “In Nineveh, by decree of the king and his officials: Neither human nor animal, cattle nor flock, will taste anything! No grazing and no drinking water! ⁸ Let humans and animals alike put on mourning clothes, and let them call upon God forcefully! And let all persons stop their evil behavior and the violence that’s under their control!” ⁹ He thought, Who knows? God may see this and turn from his wrath, so that we might not perish.^[a]
10 God saw what they were doing—that they had ceased their evil behavior. So God stopped planning to destroy them, and he didn’t do it.

The people of Nineveh believed God and repented. Will we?


Yeshua Jesus said that He is coming soon.

Revelation 22:6-7 Common English Bible (CEB)

Jesus is coming soon

⁶ Then he said to me, “These words are trustworthy and true. The Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, sent his angel to show his servants what must soon take place.
⁷ “Look! I’m coming soon. Favored is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy contained in this scroll.”

1 Thessalonians 5:1-3 Common English Bible (CEB)

The Lord’s coming

5 We don’t need to write to you about the timing and dates, brothers and sisters. ² You know very well that the day of the Lord is going to come like a thief in the night. ³ When they are saying, “There is peace and security,” at that time sudden destruction will attack them, like labor pains start with a pregnant woman, and they definitely won’t escape.

Which path will mankind go?

I have had two pictures of our future in my mind for some time now and those pictures are becoming clearer to me. Two separate paths will lead us to two separate results. One path will lead to destruction and the other will lead to peace and serenity. I believe God is giving us, as a whole and individually, the decision of choosing which path we will take.

The Bible talks about a new heaven and new earth. I see that could happen in two different ways. If all of us humans decided to receive the Living Water and we all become One with God in Christ Jesus, then Satan will be defeated. He would have no more control or influence over us. In essence, there would be a new heaven and new earth. If we continue down our present path, then I think God has no choice but to destroy everything and create a new heaven and new earth. The choice is up to us.

Isaiah 65:17 King James Version (KJV)

¹⁷ For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.

I have discovered several things in this scripture verse in my studies. We can not tell if the new heavens and new earth are being created as we speak or if they will be created in the future. Some translations have translated from the original text that it is a future creation, “I will create” and some translate the original text to the present tense, “I am creating”. Also, the original Hebrew word that has been translated to our English word “new” is “chadash” {pronounced khaw-dawsh'}. The meaning has a primitive root; to be new but in a causative way; to rebuild, renew, repair. So, we really can not tell if God is repairing this world and this heavens or will He do away with these and create new.

Other things I have discovered in my studies which I believe go along with these thoughts are found at the ends of both the Old Testament and New Testament of our Bible. The last book of the Old Testament is the book of Malachi.

Malachi 4:4-6 Wycliffe Bible (WYC)

⁴ Bethink ye on the law of my servant Moses, which I commanded to him in Horeb, to all Israel commandments and dooms. (Remember ye the Law of my servant Moses, which I commanded to him at Mount Sinai, yea, my ordinances and judgements, or laws, for all the people of Israel.)

⁵ Lo! I shall send to you Elijah, the prophet, before that the great day and horrible of the Lord come. (Lo! I shall send you the prophet Elijah, before that the great and terrible day of the Lord shall come.)

⁶ And he shall turn again the heart of fathers to sons, and the heart of sons to the fathers of them, lest peradventure I come, and smite the earth with (a) curse. Amen. (And he shall turn the hearts of the fathers toward their sons, and the hearts of the sons toward their fathers, lest perhaps I come, and strike the land with a curse (KJV says "...smite the earth with a curse."), and destroy it. Amen.)

(If you are a believer, then you have been adopted into the people of Israel.)

Here it says in a nutshell that if peace is not restored, then God will destroy it (earth) as He did when He sent the flood upon the earth and destroyed every living creature including man, except for those He saved that were in the ark. This time it will be destruction by fire. I feel that the Lord is still giving us a chance to change our heart with His help of the Holy Spirit, the Living Water.

This is what it says at the end of the New Testament.

Revelation 22:14-17 Common English Bible (CEB)

¹⁴ Favored are those who wash their robes so that they may have the right of access to the tree of life and may enter the city by the gates. ¹⁵ Outside are the dogs, the drug users and spell-casters, those who commit sexual immorality, the murderers, the idolaters, and all who love and practice deception.
¹⁶ “I, Jesus, have sent my angel to bear witness to all of you about these things for the churches. I’m the root and descendant of David, the bright morning star. ¹⁷ The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come!’ Let the one who hears say, ‘Come!’ And let the one who is thirsty come! Let the one who wishes receive life-giving water^[a] as a gift.”

Ezekiel 11:19-21 Common English Bible (CEB)

¹⁹ I will give them a single heart, and I will put a new spirit in them. I will remove the stony hearts from their bodies and give them hearts of flesh ²⁰ so that they may follow my regulations and carefully observe my case laws. They will be my people, and I will be their God. ²¹ As for those whose hearts continue to go after their disgusting and detestable things, I will hold them accountable for their ways. This is what the Lord God says!

God is One

I believe that the saying “God is One” is misunderstood.

HaqIslam

Islam belief:

1. Muslim beliefs in Allah – the one and only almighty God, Lord and Creator. Him we trust and Him alone we fear.
   

Judaism101

Jews belief:

G-d is one and unique

Basic Christian Beliefs

Christians belief:

• There is only one God (Isaiah 43:10; 44:6, 8; John 17:3; 1 Corinthians 8:5-6; Galatians 4:8-9).

Christians throw into their belief system something that seems contradictory and has caused great strife between Christianity and the other religions.

• God is three in one or a Trinity (Matthew 3:16-17, 28:19; John 14:16-17; 2 Corinthians 13:14; Acts 2:32-33, John 10:30,17:11, 21; 1 Peter 1:2).
  

I think that this three in one concept has even caused problems with Christians.

All three religions Islam, Judaism, and Christianity believe in One God but in the accounts of Allah / Yahweh / God creating things, including man, (Quran, Torah, Bible) God is in a plural form, more than One (WE, US, OUR). Wouldn't it make more sense to corroborate the singleness of God with the single form (I, ME, MY)? Hence, is why I believe we don't fully understand those words, “God is One.”

Islam:

QURAN   

God says in the Holy Quran:

Indeed: We have created man from a mingled sperm-drop, that We might try him, so We made him hearing, seeing. From this stage his procreation began to be compounded from many elements because his role in the universe was to be many sided which necessitated that he should possess a wide range of qualities.

Does not man remember that We created him before, when he was naught? (19:68) And We made from water every living thing... (21:31)

Did We not create you from an insignificant fluid, and we placed it in a safe place? (77:22)

21 The Prophets ------- al-Anbiya

30. Do the disbelievers not see that the heavens and the earth were one mass, and We tore them apart? And We made from water every living thing. Will they not believe?
31. And We placed on earth stabilizers, lest it sways with them, and We placed therein signposts and passages, that they may be guided.
32. And We made the sky a protected ceiling; yet they turn away from its wonders.
33. It is He who created the night and the day, and the sun and the moon; each floating in an orbit.
34. We did not grant immortality to any human being before you. Should you die, are they then the immortal?
35. Every soul will taste death. We burden you with adversity and prosperity—a test. And to Us you will be returned.

Judaism:

From the Torah:

A Hebrew - English Bible

According to the Masoretic Text

and the JPS 1917 Edition

Genesis Chapter 1

26 And God said: 'Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.'

27 And God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them. (God created a male and a female in His image - two.)

Genesis Chapter 3

22 And the LORD God said: 'Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil; and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever.'

Christianity:
The Old Testament of the Bible: (Same as in the Torah. The Old Testament, for the most part, has been translated from the Torah but the books are arranged differently and of course, names are different from the original Hebrew and Aramaic names.)

Genesis 1:26-27 New American Standard Bible

26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

Genesis 3:22 Common English Bible (CEB)

²² The Lord God said, “The human being^[a] has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil.” Now, so he doesn’t stretch out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat and live forever,

I believe we can better understand the true meaning of “ONE”, “GOD IS ONE” by the words said by Yeshua Jesus.

First, Jesus said that He existed with the Father before the world was created. I believe this explains the plural form of God in creation.

John 17:5 

Common English Bible

5 Now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I shared with you before the world was created.

Jesus said that He and the Father are One. John 17:11 Common English Bible  11 I’m no longer in the world, but they are in the world, even as I’m coming to you. Holy Father, watch over them in your name, the name you gave me, that they will be one just as we are one. When we take Jesus into us, like when we eat food and we receive the Holy Spirit, like when we drink water, then we become One with Christ Jesus. Romans 12:4-5  Common English Bible 4 We have many parts in one body, but the parts don’t all have the same function. 5 In the same way, though there are many of us, we are one body in Christ, and individually we belong to each other. Another way to understand “God is One” is to see God like you would see a man and a woman who through marriage become one.